You know what? I'm a bit stumped on how to start this blog post. Life stuff got busy and I forgot to write anything. When I remembered "oh, I need to write something." I promptly got busy with life stuff again, and forgot to write. How funny is that?
When I saw I had two flosstube shownote blog posts in a row, I knew I needed to do something.
Then I got stuck on how far back should I go? Do I write a book or do I condense it down?
I don't know. ...
Okay.
Fishing season has officially started. Hooray!
We haven't been out as much as we'd like, thanks to the wind. But on the days we have gotten out and on the lake ...
Beautiful skies.
I enjoyed a nice Mother's Day.
A "Fancy" breakfast of French toast, sliced strawberries and homemade whipped cream. I spent my breakfast time with Elizabeth Zimmerman, trying to decide if I wanted to attempt one of her patterns that are written in her conversational way. I don't know that I'm up to it. Still. I've had those books for more than 15 years.
My hummingbird friend returned. She (or he) buzzed me one day when I was out in the garden area. I knew that was the command to fill the hummingbird feeder.
I even made sauerkraut one day.
When I first started making kraut I used to slice and chop it all by hand.
Not anymore. I use my little chopper.
This batch is still percolating.
At some point I went out to the she shed and did a tidy up. You'll likely never see it is this tidy again.
As I told a friend, you wouldn't believe all that is squirreled away in the she shed.
And if you couldn't tell, the weather turned nice. Finally. This past Sunday (I think it was) we had a fire in the woodstove, and by bedtime we had all the windows open, wondering when it was going to cool down. It was quite the temperature swing.
I mentioned on my last flosstube that my son has an outdoor project he's worked on for the last several years. ... the weather and the rain caused his grass seed to sprout and grow.
Course now it's "we need to cut the grass" because it seems to have grown two inches overnight, according to my son.
The girls are loving the grass and the nice weather. Egg production has increased a bit.
I've started planting!
Yes, it's true!
Slow but surely, it will get put in. So far it's mostly flowers I've put in containers. I've started working on a garden journal video and hopefully it will be posted this week.
This past weekend was Memorial weekend. We were to have company come up. The visit was canceled almost at the last minute, for very good and understandable reasons. A bummer, but my hubby and I managed to still enjoy the weekend, once the weather went from rainy and crappy, to *OH WOW it's warm out there!"
On Monday, when we were out on the lake, we saw two bald eagles. It was a very cool experience to see them.
I'm guessing they were not a bonded pair because someone has to be with any eaglets they may have, right?
Of course I've been crafting. Here's a couple photos from the last few weeks. If you want to see almost the most up-to-date, you need to watch my flosstube!
I will share that I finished the second vanilla sock. Yay!
Today was back to work. I would have really loved to have had one more day off work. Oh well. There's always next weekend, right?
I've been keeping an eye on gardening social media accounts, watching gardening youtube channels and reading posts and comments in the gardening Facebook groups I'm in, and paying particular attention to the ones local to my state.
Finally, I planted seeds into soil today.
Only a week later than what I was originally planning.
I'm in zone 4a/former zone3b in northern Wisconsin. I've been looking forward to this moment almost since I put the garden to bed this past fall.
I was thinking about starting a few things in January and decided to hold off until February. The plan was to start seeds on Valentine's Day. I remember hearing *someone* (I can't remember who) saying they started their tomatoes around Valentine's Day. Four or five years ago I decided to start seeds way sooner than I usually did and it was such a successful year that I knew this was the way to go.
I set things up and pulled my seed stash out.
Peppers and tomatos, with a side of celery, herbs, and some flowering annuals is what I planted this round.
Last year I learned a neat trick involving a toothpick for planting those tiny little seeds.
You wet the tip of the tooth pick and touch the seeds, one at a time, and plant them.
It worked real slick for the tomato seeds, too. No worries about accidentally dropping two seeds on to one block.
Just a little "in progress" shot. I was listening to The Rusted Garden, Gardening in Canada and one other channel, I think. I know at one point my youtube auto played over to Roots and Refuge.
It felt good to be seed starting. Especially when the sun was out and shining for a little while.
Halfway through I said to my hubby since it was sunny out and the temperature was up I could have been out in the greenhouse doing this. He agreed. Oh that would have been all the garden feels. Maybe too much! Ha! I'm *so* looking forward to utilizing the greenhouse this spring.
My soon-to-be little seedlings are now in the seed starting station, along with some of the houseplants keeping them company.
It may not look like much; I planted 400 seeds today. Crazy, right? I do need to write notes and a list of the seeds I planted today. When the seedlings are big enough I will transplant them up in to bigger soil blocks. I'd be shocked if all those seeds sprouted. li
The other *big project* I did today was chopping up peppers for the dehydrator. One of the best things I've learned in the last few years is dehydrating peppers and grinding them up into a boutique pepper blend.
For the most part things have been quiet around the homestead. Earlier this week we decided we needed a second yard wagon.
I had a moment. Why? Because the last time I put one of these together, my girl Furby was with me, supervising.
I know ... you are probably like "Why?" She'll be gone for almost two years and I still miss her.
Soooooo ... Furby Junior and her boy toy supervised and were no help at all.
Yes, those are fairy lights draped over them.
About an hour later I got the wagon all put together, with some help from my guy.
My area has been dealing with subzero temps. I don't mean to complain, but I am going to. Just a bit. It's been freaking cold out there! Also, not much in the way of sun.
The ladies haven't been out of the coop much over the last several weeks. When I have thought to open the door to see if they'd go out and deal with the snow, they opted to stay inside. Smart ladies!
Yesterday they were out and trying to make sense of the paths we've made in the snow. A couple decided they needed to hang out on the back deck, all fluffed up.
I know, not the best photo. There wasn't a good angle for taking a photo.
Today I got some happy mail from a fellow flosstuber. Patty Penn at Stitching with my kitties sent me a few goodies. Scissor fobs/zipper pulls and a needle threader she made.
All so cute and I got them on bags and scissors already.
They are all so cute!
Speaking of flosstube. ... I know ... I haven't recorded since January. I meant to. ...
I've got some health crap going on again. I don't really want to talk much about it. Though those who are in the inner circle know what's going on. I don't want to look back on blog posts and read about it. If you'll remember, last year I got sick and was dealing with stuff. I haven't been feeling 100 percent and it's basically the same symptoms as last year. I'm now at a certain age where certain physical things are happening and my body is rebelling like a teenager. If you are a female of about my age than maybe you know what I'm talking about. I don't know what's causing it and I'm doing what I can to get it figured out. So for the foreseeable future if I go quiet for a while it's likely because I'm not feeling all that great. And that is about all I'm going to say about that.
I am starting to perk up a bit, and getting past January has helped. Officially starting garden seeds did wonders for my mood today, too.
I've been off work for most of the last couple of weeks, thanks to the holidays and having to use up vacation time before I lose it.
Today was my first day back and I guess it did not disappoint. One of the first emails I got was a "Hey, I got the invoice" and the numbers aren't the same as the previous one. (Oh wow, I just felt a bit of deja vu writing that) and turns out it was a bigger issue once someone dug into it a bit. Lovely ...
At least the sun was out for a bit ...
And I got a bit of other news that makes me think 2025 is not going to be as quiet and gentle as I hoped it would be. A year of big change, potentially. Time will tell and I'm not going to let it be a brain drain on me.
So, with that little bit out of the way ...
The memes and what people say about the days between New Year's being a time of not knowing what day it is is *so* true. I think it was New Year's Eve, or the day before I was telling someone about something that happened on what I remembered was Christmas Day. I had the time off, my husband had scattered time off so it got to the point where I didn't know if we were coming or going and whether I needed to make a lunch for his work.
We had a lovely steak dinner on New Year's Day.
I tried out a new-to-me recipe. Keto-something.
It's eggs, cream cheese, butter and some vanilla and cinnamon. Turned out good. Was even better with a bit of syrup and fresh whipped cream.
I'd say this is an apt visual of what that time looked like for me. Sunshine, but a mild hot mess and chaos. It's beautiful, though. This is life. As messy and annoying the seeming never-ending dishwashing may sometimes be.
I didn't do as much crafting as you would think. We were trying to take advantage of what decent weather there was and take care of outside things.
Yes, we aren't letting the colder weather hold us back. Hardy, har, har.
I did start my Mother's Garden cross stitch, by Blackbird Designs.
Project Name: Mother's Garden
Stitch count:
Started: Jan. 1, 2025
Finished:
Designer/Source: Blackbird Designs, given to me by sister-in-law
Fabric: 32 count Briston Linen, purchased at Hobby Lobby
Making for myself.
Yesterday I had to take care of a couple things in town and make a run up to Duluth. It was a nice day for the time of year, so I stopped at one of the parkways on Skyline and took a few photos and a video.
Having grown up in the area I take the view for granted. It is beautiful.
This is the John Blatnik Bridge. Also know as the High Bridge by the locals.
This is the Richard Bong Bridge. It's lower and more curvy. Depending on the day I'd rather take the Blatnik versus driving on the Bong.
And here is your pseudo-tour guide, to memorialize the occasion.
This evening I took down my wee Christmas tree. Kinda bittersweet. I didn't want to put all the lights away just yet so I draped them around Furby Jr.
Pretty cunning, right?
Yup, that is one lingering gift. I haven't seen the person it's for.
There's another project I started this week. Since I don't have a sweater on the needles yet I am sort of at loose ends.
Take a guess as to what it might be?
One last thing ... Once the calendar page turned over to January the garden center of my brain activated.
I've been watching some gardening youtube channels and haunting some of the gardening groups on the book of faces.
The first seed purchase of the year was made. It's so wee and cute. Only six seed packets.
And the seed starting station has been assembled.
I already have a plant in there. Well, it's a bit of an experiment. One of my Christmas cacti tipped over and a bunch of the leaves broke off. I had *just* seen a real or video about how to propagate new plants by setting them in a bowl and held up with plastic wrap. I have nothing to lose and a bunch of new plants to gain.
When I sat down to start writing this blog post, that was the first thing that came to mind, for some reason. Maybe because that is how January has felt? Stagnating?
Maybe it's appropriate that my friend sent this gem through to me.
Then, suddenly, it will be February in just a few days, and I will be thinking "Wow, that last little bit sure went fast!"
The last time I wrote was just over a week ago. Last week didn't feel that interesting as I was living it. No sun. Temperature's not as forecasted. I was working towards a publishing day. Blerg. ...
Tuesday I went to the dentist for a cleaning. My hygienist is a really sweet gal, and we usually end up talking crafty things. Well, as much as we can while she's rooting around in my mouth, making sure everything is as it should be.
When we were done, I got up and had pulled out my phone to show her something knitting-related and she saw the photo of Furby as my lock screen. She enthused over how pretty Furby was and I had a hard time talking about Furby.
Not in the way you might think. I wanted to tell her SO much about what kind of girl my Furby was that I got a bit stuck and didn't know what to say first. She was my favorite girl and she is missed.
It's been at least six months and I still get a bit teary-eyed and choked up at times when I think about her.
*ahem*
My son has been begging me to make eggrolls. Ever since the mom of one of his friends made eggrolls and he brought some home, he's pleaded with me to make them.
I said I would if I found a good recipe. Everything online calls for 100 ingredients. I asked my mom's group if anyone had a good recipe. My friend E came through and gave me the recipe her mom used.
Eggrolls were a big, fat hit! I even figured out a way to make them low carb, using low carb wraps.
Another day I took advantage of the slowly thawing temperatures and cleaned out the chicken coop before work. Yeah, I was out in the coop at 7 a.m., mucking it out.
These two thought it was WAY too early for those type of shenanigans.
The pine shavings were SO heavy from all the moisture. Then trying to move the wheelbarrow through the soft snow. I thought I was gonna die!
One of my hens was a bit miffed because she wanted to lay an egg and I kept messing about, and then I emptied the shavings out of the nesting boxes.
Oh yeah ... when I first went out there I was looking at the tracks in the snow.
Pretty sure this is a raccoon track. I am not fond of raccoons.
Cleaning out took me about an hour. I know I clean out my chicken coop more frequently than others probably do. I want my birds to be happy.
They are.
I shot a quick video and my one hen had to come check out what I was doing. This is my Stumpy Girl.
Quilting ...
The quilting has slowed down a small bit. Now that a few of the small sewing projects have been wrapped up I've not been quite as quick to run to the craft room in the evenings. I'm still in there, though.
I don't remember which night it was that I decided I was going to start working on squares for the Dancing Stars quilt.
I thought I'd be so clever about it, too, and not look at the instructions.
I have no idea what month this color set is.
I sewed the pieces together in groups of two. Then grouped two groups together.
Like, I said ... I was being so clever.
Three groups of four.
I don't remember it being three groups of four ... Or the pieces needing to be sewn up into a Y seam.
Drat!
It was supposed to be four groups of three colors.
The first quilt square went in to timeout while I mentally kicked myself. Then the next day I ripped seams and re-did the first square.
Sewn back together as best as I could do. There is some weird circular wrinkling going on.
I know if I ripped everything apart and sewed it all back together, those wrinkles would likely not go away. So they will stay. Close enough. Not to mention 12 fabrics meeting in the same spot. I doubt they would have come together again as nice as they currently are.
Last night I ripped the remaining quilt squares apart, ironed and they are all ready to go.
I have a goal of completing this set of squares by the end of the week, along with one square from the other quilt I'm working on. Wish me luck!
And in the midst of the week I was out in the she shed and spotted a bag of DMC floss. I was like "What chart is this for?'
I have no idea what project I picked these up for. *Eeks* It was nice to look at all those colors together. So bright and pretty.
About half of the fiber I weight out for January has been spun up. I have some kind of hang up about spinning. It's all *right there* ready to go.
When I have spun it's been wonderful.
Saturday I finally did it! What did I do? I started some seeds!
I've been waiting for this moment. Then when it finally got here, I was like "What should I start?"
Celery, onions and lettuce, duh! I also started a few herbs.
My first set of mini soilblocks. Aren't they adorable?
All the room in the house to work and plant seeds, and where do I go? The kitchen table.
Sometimes I really amaze myself with what I'm able to do in a tiny space I allow myself to work in.
After I planted the seeds and dropped some vermiculite on it all.
I decided to try something different this year. No plant tags tucked between the soil blocks. I have tape with numbers on them, and I have a notebook where I listed everything I planted. Last year I had trouble with the plant labels sliding out of place.
This weekend I'm going to plant some peppers, and ... I don't know what else yet. A lot of perennial seeds were purchased and I'd like to set some of those started. Just need to settle on how I'm going to start the seeds: Winter sowing, in seed cups, soil blocks ... I have a few ideas. The mild winter is helping, too. Maybe plant a few small cups of seeds and set them out in the greenhouse? Or, I could use the material we got last year and make a low tunnel?
My office chair out in the she shed got a makeover. This chair is at least 12 years old. Maybe 15? It's still in great shape but for the material. The material is pleather and it's starting to split.
It now matches MUCH better, I think.
On Sunday the sun came out.
Seriously ... My hubby and I were outside and when the sun broke through the clouds I went and stood in a sun patch.
Our snow melted a LOT over the weekend.
Yesterday was publishing day. 'Nuff said. It's publishing day!
Today was catch up day.
When I was out in the coop this morning, before work, our barred rock roo decided to act up a bit with me. I'm sure I did something he didn't like, such as sweeping away pine shavings so I can close the door.
I grabbed him and held him for a bit and talked to him. Then he leaned his head over and nipped my hand. Through the glove he managed to bruise me.
The brat. I didn't hand raise him from a chick. He was a rescue. There hasn't been any attitude until late last summer. He would try to sneak attack me and I don't put up with it, so he's had his fair share of being held by me while I tell him he's a naughty boy. I thought we were making headway when he finally would take food I offered him. Nope.
The rest of this week ... I have Thursday and Friday off. The last little bit of my paid time off before my work anniversary. My plan is to record a podcast one of these days.
Soooo ... I guess that's all the news from Lake Woebegone ...
Oh, and if you didn't know where the quote in the title is from, it's a line from the original "All Creatures, Great and Small."
